


Star-Girl

by peterplanet



Category: Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017)
Genre: F/M, Fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-28
Updated: 2019-04-28
Packaged: 2020-02-08 14:41:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,833
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18625321
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/peterplanet/pseuds/peterplanet
Summary: in which peter and the reader sit next to each other in physics





	Star-Girl

They met in a shared physics class junior year to the hammering of his heartbeat as she focused her gaze on his. They were lab partners, but neither to the degree of  _assigned_ or  _friends—_ in reality they were the last two left in the class without a partner and they had both flocked to the same back table to avoid the heated stares of their teacher and classmates.

But of course Peter knew her. _Everyone_ knew her because she was (Y/N): a girl with a starry gaze and a love for all things astronomical. She was kind to everyone to the point that even Flash—Flash Thompson—would smile at her and ask about her weekend without being snarky or mean-spirited towards her. Even Michelle knows her and laughs with her at lunch when they stand in line together on the days where neither of them are buried in a book—Michelle in a world of fiction and (Y/N) in any book that has anything remotely to do with space.

“Hello, Peter,” she breathes the phrase so softly that he has to double check that she actually spoke to him. “How’s your Stark internship going?”

Peter can’t help but be caught off guard because of how well she knows him even though they’ve only spoken in classroom situations. He racks his brain to try and remember when he told her about it but he realizes that maybe he didn’t and she’s just observant—his tired eyes and hollow laughter isn’t very easily concealed—or maybe he did tell her and she has a better memory than him. He considers the latter to be the more plausible of the two very likely scenarios.

“It’s, uh…it’s going p-pretty well,” he concedes with a soft smile that masks his prayer to whomever is listening that his cheeks aren’t flushing scarlet just yet. “K-Keeps me pretty busy, honestly. B-But I’m not complaining!”

He finds himself yelling at himself over how much he stuttered and how severely he finds himself wallowing in self-doubt to the point that he has to cover up his tracks to convey an idea that she had already understood. Of course she understood what he wanted to say because she understands him better than anyone else, he concedes, even though she’s never really had a conversation with him before that wasn’t shallow small-talk. In reality, he supposes that none of her small-talk is  _really_ shallow because its coming from her mouth and her starry ideas.

“I don’t think you’ve ever complained once in your life, Peter Parker,” she assures him in that quiet way of hers that makes his heart stutter at the way that she smiles at him in a way that matches her tone of voice, “and if you were, I wouldn’t blame you. I can barely keep my focus on school and my job without wanting to complain to someone all of the time, so I can’t imagine how hard it must be for you.”

 _But you can imagine it,_ Peter thinks to himself,  _because you’re in practically the same boat as me._

“Where do you work?” Peter asks with flushed cheeks and a gaze that he hopes doesn’t come across as too hopeful or eager (spoiler alert: it does) as he praises himself for not stuttering in front of her for once.

“You’ll laugh,” she says with a slight giggle spilling out of her lips, “but I work under the supervision of a professor at the community college—Queensborough? —who teaches astrology and astrophysics. I mainly grade papers and work as a paid intern for the science department, but, uhm, it’s a good gig. I really like it because I get to discuss different planets and their moons and their orbital rotation. Like, Jupiter has…” She cuts off her ramblings to tear her gaze away from his hesitantly and brings her hands up to play with the tips of her hair in that nervous way of hers that she always does.

“Sorry,” she adds after a moment, “you probably don’t really care all that much, do you?”

Peter smiles and shakes his head as he looks down at (Y/N) with a look that anyone in the room would describe as  _fond_ but he would describe as  _normal._ “I’ll listen to whatever you say, (Y/N),” he assures her with such a gentle smile that it almost doesn’t register on his features, “especially something that you’re passionate about.”

* * *

Peter sees her every day after that for the next week, and somehow, he still finds that it isn’t often enough to satisfy his want to see her. He wants to spend all of the time that he possibly can with her and keep her close to him at all times because he can’t believe that someone so soft exists.

“Hello, Peter,” she says in that quiet way of hers on a Friday as she slides into the seat next to him at their table in the back. “Happy Friday.”

“You’ve got that right,” Peter chirps with a chuckle leaving his lips. He’s slowly been growing to be more confident around her over the span of the past week and his heart flutters at the thought that  _maybe_ he’s normal enough for her to like. Maybe, if he’s pushing his luck, he’s even boyfriend-level normal to her.

“Do you have any plans for the weekend?” She keeps her quiet voice, although Peter is able to detect the smallest note of concern laced in her tone as she speaks. “Does Stark need you this weekend or do you get it off?”

(Y/N), Peter has noticed, has formed her own way of being casual about everything that she says to him so that he can’t respond negatively. It’s both relaxing and stressing at the same time, and it drives him crazy to think about because he doesn’t know if he’s responded the way that she wants him to. He’s not used to this type of freedom in his speech around girls and it’s hard for him to fathom the idea that she’s able to make him feel both totally, one-hundred percent normal and entirely out of his element at the same time.

The way that she speaks to him in this instance leads him to think that maybe she wants him to ask her out. Maybe she wants something more than their physics-class level infatuation and tender smiles, or maybe he’s just hoping for too much.

“I don’t really get a lot of time off,” he admits with a sheepish smile that he notices sends her into a frown. He can’t bear the idea that the starlight has been sucked out of her usually bright gaze because of him and he wants so desperately to figure out how to put it back in. “B-But he lets me off i-if I ask!”

She shakes her head and opens her notebook and focuses her gaze on the blank page for a moment before she writes the date up in the corner. The silence that engulfs them holds no possibility of being longer than ten seconds, but Peter would swear to you that he’d never endured a silence so traumatizing as that one.

He hears her small intake of breath and prays that it’s an indication that she’s going to speak before he begins to ramble on about everything and nothing and all of the spaces in between. Looking back on the memory later that night, Peter would come to tell himself that her voice has never sounded so melodic or stardust-filled as it did in that moment, “I-I was just wondering if yo-you’d maybe want to catch a movie tomorrow, but if it’s…if it’s not enough notice for Stark o-or you don’t want to, then I-I understand.”

Peter can’t breathe. His lungs are clouded with carbon dioxide and his brain is telling him that this isn’t happening because he’s Peter Parker and things like this don’t happen to him. Pretty girls in his physics class don’t ask him out to movies like they want him to say yes without a catch and it pains him to think that his first reaction is that of the idea that she’s doing this as a joke. Because Peter Parker knows that (Y/N) would never trick him in such a cruel way as this. He’d even go so far as to bet his old Pokémon card collection on the slimmest shadow of a hope that he has that she’s asking him because she wants him to say yes.

So, he does. Peter says yes through the baited whisper that hangs on the ghost of his smile as he says, “I’ll do anything that you want, star-girl.”

* * *

(Y/N) is all that Peter can think about throughout the rest of the day, and he knows that Ned is starting to lose a little bit of his mind to the constant chattering about his star-girl who turns his heart to dust.

“Ned,” Peter says to conclude his rambling discussion about what he should wear and how he should greet her and if he should have his aunt drive him or meet her at the cinema after taking the metro to meet her, “we don’t have each other’s numbers. How am I supposed to know what movie to see or at what time? W-What am I supposed to do…?”

Ned rolls his eyes and looks at Peter with the formation of half a smirk resting over his features. “Hey, man,” he says with a laugh tumbling from his lips in a goofy, ‘I-know-what-I’m-doing’ sort of way, “what are chair-guys for?”

“What do you mean, Ned?” Peter asks in his adorable confusion, all pouty lips and unsure gazes.

“I  _mean_  that we were partners in chemistry last year and that we exchanged numbers to ask each other questions about the labs. I have her number and I’ll give it to you, broski.” Ned clarifies all of this with yet another roll of his eyes that sends Peter’s heart into a mode that can finally relax.

“I don’t know what I’d do without you, Ned,” Peter admits with a deflated, albeit relaxed, sigh.

“You’d have to go talk to her face-to-face. What a terrifying thought, I know, I know—save the thanks of gratitude for later when you’ve gotten laid after this number-giving ceremony.”

* * *

Peter meets (Y/N) the next day after many stressed texts that left him wondering over his every word and emoji choice. He wanted this to go smoothly so badly that he would give anything just to know that she was going to enjoy the night with him.

He’s never seen her outside of school before, he realizes, as he waves to her from his spot in front of the cinema. She comes to him in a floral-print dress that she wears over black tights and red converse that are scuffed around the trims and look to be well-worn in a washed type of way. She’s nervously playing with the tips of her hair and Peter’s heart stops at the thought that she’s just as nervous for this as he is.

“Hello, Peter,” she says in her quiet way that litters stardust throughout her every inhalation.

He breathes her in with a soft smile that lingers through the silence that he has started. She greets him so naturally—so easily—as they rest together in a more intimate way. While it’s never been directly stated, this is obviously a date and it makes Peter nervous to think about because she asked him on a date and now they’re together and she’s smiling at him like he might be made of constellations.

“You look really nice,” she comments in a way that does not chastise him for being quiet around her and not saying  _hello_ in return. She probably understands his nerves and feels the same way in this moment and it’s that thought that frees his anxiety enough to make him smile back at her.

“Isn’t that supposed to be my line?” He laughs so easily with her that he almost misses the dazzling sunshine that is her smile. “That I think you look really pretty—which you do, by the way—and then I slyly take your hand and buy your movie ticket?”

She’s blushing now in the same shade of the roses that litter the fabric of her dress and it makes him swell with pride at the slightest inclination of the idea that he might make her feel the same way that she makes him feel. “I like all of that,” she admits through a breathy smile, “besides you paying for my ticket. I can pay, okay?”

Peter shakes his head and musters up the courage to gently take her hand in his own. He intertwines their fingers to the soft hitch of her breath as he gives her fingers a gentle squeeze. “I’ve got this one, star-girl.”

“Then I’ve got the next one, okay?” She demands with a soft smile still playing at her flushing features. “And there’s no arguing with me.”

He knows this as a fact in the same way that she knows everything about dark matter and the gravitational forces of every planet in the solar system and probably a few other galaxies. So, he just keeps her hand in his as he goes and orders two tickets to see the newest planetary documentary that he isn’t interested in, but that made him think of her as soon as he heard about it.

The look (Y/N) gives him as he buys the tickets makes him think that she might believe that he’s as beautiful as a clear-night sky.

* * *

They come out of the movie theater with their hands still locked together and their eyes still shyly stealing glances at the other’s face. He’s afraid to speak up and break the silence that has settled between them because the sun is just setting and the flickering light illuminates her face in such a way that he almost believes that she’s his personal star. Maybe it’s cheesy or too much to admit, but Peter knows that she’s given his life more excitement and genuine love and consideration ever since they sat together in physics. He can’t form any words together enough to make a sentence that will convey just how much he loves being with her and holding her hand and seeing her excitement over the movie.

“Thank you, Peter,” she says quietly as they stand out front of the theater in the pale light that is slowly sinking into slumber for the night, “for taking me to see that movie. You really didn’t have to—I know that it was probably really boring since I was so into it. But I appreciate it, and next time we’ll do something that you really enjoy, okay?”

They’re walking towards the metro stop to catch the last ride back to their individual homes with their hands still intertwines and clasping onto each other in a way that makes Peter’s head spin because  _she’s really holding his hand oh my God._

“I’d do anything with you,” he admits with a sheepish smile making its way over his features as he looks down at his star-girl stood before him, “if it makes you happy and I get to be with you, then I’m happy.”

The way that she turns into his hold to hug him catches him immediately off guard and leaves him standing still in shock for a moment before he can even begin to think about wrapping his arms around her in return. When he does, it only serves to allow her to press closer to him with a smile still playing over her features as she presses herself closer to him.

“When you say things like that, it makes me really nervous,” she admits through a quiet but incredulously happy laugh. “But in a good way, if that makes sense.”

He doesn’t think that anything else that he’s ever heard has made him as insanely happy as that statement does. “Of course it makes sense,” he murmurs into her hair, “I don’t think that anything that you’ve ever told me hasn’t made sense.”

And it’s there, in that moment, with his star-girl pressed into his embrace with a happy smile forming over her features that Peter finally understands the concept of feeling wanted. No one has ever made him feel this way before and he doesn’t think that anyone ever could besides her, and he can’t say that he’s complaining. In this one moment that feels so infinitely grand in the bigger picture of his life, Peter Parker feels wanted and good enough to have a girl in his arms and he wants so badly to keep her there for the rest of his life.

Maybe her preferred subject was physics, but between him and his star-girl, Peter had to admit that there was an awful lot of chemistry.


End file.
